Science

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force has awarded agreements worth up to $3.2 billion to a group of 12 companies to develop prototypes for space-based interceptors. The awards, announced April 24 by the Space Systems Command, cover 20 agreements made in late 2025 and early 2026 using Other Transaction Authority contracts, a flexible acquisition tool

Stephan Schlamminger and his colleague, Vincent Lee, examine the torsion balance they used to measure the gravitational constant R. Eskalis/NIST For centuries, physicists have been trying to measure the strength of gravity, a number called “big G”. The measurements have never lined up with one another, hinting that either we don’t fully understand our experiments

Quiz of the week: At what temperature did researchers find a new critical point in water? – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — The Space Systems Command, the U.S. Space Force’s acquisition arm, awarded SpaceX a $57 million contract to demonstrate satellite-to-satellite communications using Link-182, a radio-frequency data link standard the Space Force has adopted for its MILNET data relay network. MILNET is a planned constellation of Starshield communications satellites in low Earth orbit built by

A reconstruction of the giant octopus Yohei Utsuki/Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Hokkaido University While dinosaurs ruled the land, Cretaceous oceans were home to a fierce and enormous octopus species that may have reached up to 19 metres in length, rivalling the size of the largest predators of the time, including sharks and marine

Tantala 3D integrated circuits deliver a rainbow of laser light – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has nominated defense industry and intelligence executive Roger Mason to lead the National Reconnaissance Office. If confirmed by the Senate, Mason would replace Christopher Scolese, who has run the agency since August 2019. The NRO builds and operates the nation’s spy satellites, a classified network that supplies imagery and signals

The dairy industry’s green claims are under scrutiny Witthaya/Getty Images The world’s biggest meat and dairy companies are flooding the public with promises to tackle global warming, but almost all are greenwashing, a new analysis claims. Animal agriculture is a major driver of climate change, responsible for at least 16.5 per cent of all global

Researchers express ‘grave concern’ over attacks on Iranian institutions and science – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s latest budget documents put numbers behind an ambitious plan to expand U.S. military spending, with space programs emerging as one of the clearest beneficiaries. Materials released April 21 confirm the defense topline the White House outlined earlier this month, cementing both the scale of the proposed increase and its unusual reliance

An image of Titan taken by the Cassini spacecraft during a flyby NASA/JPL/SSI/Val Klavans Titan’s plains may be covered in up to a metre of fluffy, organic “snow”. About 65 per cent of the surface of Saturn’s huge moon is made up of strangely uniform and flat plains, and they seem to be coated in

Shining a light on central African physics – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced April 20 it has formally terminated the Next Generation Operational Control System, or OCX, ending a 15-year effort to modernize the ground system that operates the U.S. military’s Global Positioning System satellites. The decision was made April 17 by the Defense Department’s acquisition chief at the recommendation of the Space

Extracting a patient’s blood plasma, removing a particular protein and then reintroducing the liquid could improve sepsis outcomes Vital Hil/Shutterstock People with severe sepsis could one day be treated by having their blood filtered to remove a crucial protein that seems to drive the life-threatening reaction. The approach has shown promise in animal models, with

Scientists find a new critical point in supercooled water – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force is exploring whether it can resume flights of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket without using the solid rocket boosters now under investigation, a workaround that could allow some missions to proceed even as the vehicle remains grounded for national security launches. “We think we can change the manifest slightly

The largest 3D map of our universe to date, with Earth at the center and every dot showing a galaxy DESI collaboration and KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor The universe is dead; long live the universe. Not right at this moment, not yet. But one day everything we know will be gone. The cities we build, the lakes

STEM stock rising in quantitative finance – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2026 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here